


The Last Five Years

by voodoochild



Category: Boardwalk Empire
Genre: Gen, Homecoming, Siblings, Twins, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-01
Updated: 2012-01-01
Packaged: 2017-10-28 16:35:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/309844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voodoochild/pseuds/voodoochild
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Richard takes his friend's advice and learns how to go home, even if he can't stay there. (Spoilers for 2.10 and 2.12.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Last Five Years

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [Boardwalk Empire Comment Ficathon](http://cloudytea.livejournal.com/139537.html).

Wisconsin is a long way from Atlantic City, but Jimmy's voice is in his head the entire way.

 _It'll be worth it. See her once, say goodbye the right way._

Richard's never liked trains and hasn't been on one since the army, so he drives to Chicago (and doesn't, for his own sake, go anywhere near Torrio's cathouse) and then hitches his way west. Most of the people who pick him up are the rough type - hobos or farmers or former soldiers themselves. They don't ask a lot of questions, not of this strange and nearly-silent man in the tin mask.

He hits Racine, at the shores of Lake Michigan, and it brings a wave of feeling so strong he thinks he might be sick. But he presses on, north past growing Milwaukee and finally to Appleton.

There's the general store Dad bought tools from. That's the old fishing spot where Bobby Wilkins pushed Emma in the water in January. The mullberry tree on Old Man Reed's farm he fell out of at age ten.

It should have changed, in the past five years.

He goes to see Emma at the bookstore, because it's quarter to two and that's where she'll be. And if it doesn't go well, he won't have awkward things to explain to Ma and Dad. He keeps his head down, under the green fedora he'd found in Jimmy's things.

(There had been a note: _"Fix up your goddamn mask and wear this. Ange bought it for you."_ It had been the first time he'd cried since Angela died.)

The store still smells the same; musty, with undertones of tea and fresh cookies that Mrs. Bellinger made every morning. He pauses to allow a pair of ladies to exit the shop (with the requisite triple-take horror at his mask and throat scar), and approaches the counter. It's staffed by a young man he doesn't know, and while he would like nothing more than to retreat out the door, the Jimmy-voice in his head is indignant.

 _Don't you fucking chicken out on me now. You came all this way._

"Excuse me," he says, trying to make his voice as clear as possible. "Is Emma Harrow here?"

"Richie?"

He turns around to find his twin standing behind him, holding a stack of books reaching up to her chin. She goes pale when she sees his face, but drops the books all over the floor and runs over to him.

"Em, I-"

"You came _home_."

He wraps her in his arms, and it's not as easy as it used to be. He is so much taller, and she is a few months pregnant, and it's been so long since he's done this he barely remembers the mechanics.

"Em, I'm sorry."

She shakes her head against his chest. "It doesn't matter."

He has to be honest, especially about this. "I - can't stay. I have things to do."

"Where?"

"Atlantic City." She'll be angry, later. He knows her, and she won't accept that he has a new life. But he has Jimmy's son to protect and a stake in a liquor business he intends on keeping. "I just. Had to see you. He told me to come home."

She sniffs, then looks up at him. "Who did?"

"A friend," Richard says, "A soldier, like me."


End file.
